Do I have Fibro? Please help!

I am not sure if I have fibro or not. I have seen a rheumatologist and she did a ton of lab work to rule out other possible diseases that can mimic fibro and everything came back negative, except that I have low Vitamin D levels. I have been taking Vitamin D supplements now for that. Anyway I don't know if I have fibro because I have done a lot of research on it and some of my symptoms seem like it is fibro, but I don't have all of the fibro symptoms. Nonetheless, my doc did diagnose me as having fibro...but I am not convinced. I will explain my symptoms shortly...any feedback/opinions if anyone things I do have fibro would help a lot, thanks!

So the symptoms I do have is chronic muscle pain - stiffness/tightness, they always feel very sore, tender and knotted. I especially get the worst pain in my upper back - shoulders, neck, trapezius muscles etc. That is where the majority of my pain is. I also have pain in the knuckles of my fingers, especially when I bend the joints...but it doesn't feel like bone pain it feels like muscle pain, and my fingers often feel swollen. I have random pain in my elbows sometimes, and my knees ache from standing for a long time as well as my feet. Also my muscles feel instantly bruised when I press on them, anywhere in my legs or arms. It is very tender and sore...but I only really notice the pain in these areas when I press on the muscles. But, it doesn't seem normal to me to have that much pain from pressure. Also, I have been diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, and I have read that fibro and IC tend to go hand in hand. The IC symptoms, is what developed first and then the all over muscle pain.

The symptoms I don't really have that are common to fibro are: fatigue, fibro fog, digestive problems (the most I have is bloating/gas), or itchy/burning skin, sleep difficulties. Just to note, I do sometimes get extremely tired after I eat certain foods/ or a big meal...but I don't know if that's fibro related or some type of food intolerance or just hormones and it doesn't always happen.

So I am confused on whether I truly have fibro or not? Can you have some of the symptoms with this disease but not all? If anyone knows please share your opinion, I am at a loss! I am only 25 years old, and this is ruining my life :(

Without intending to offer you false hope, I don't think a Fibromyalgia is suspect at present.
My suggestion would be to try a very low carb or carb free diet for a few weeks and see if you experience improvement.
Carbs and sugars in general are the preferred food for yeast metabolites, which in turn are the main diet of tartaric acid - a muscle and tissue toxin -
which unfortunately is a malic acid antagonist/ competes with malic acid-a very important compound for the Kreb's cycle ( metabolic process ).

While you're at it you may want to rule out candida and you may want to consider doing a saliva test on your own for it. Just look it up-fairly fast and simple.

Many people experience autoimmune- like symptoms from gluten - as the immune system may react neratively to the gluten molecules.
Also glucose molecules in the body may bind with free protein molecules,
forming what is known as glucation, rendering the proteins not only useless,
but also initiating a very serious process of inflammation which leads to the formation of clusters of glucation called AGEs (advanced glucation end products) and TNF (tumor necrosis factor) responsible for many conditions like Arthritic conditions, Alzheimers, Psoriasis and others.

Wheat grains and gluten are the #1 food group for adverse reactions and dairy is #2. Often due to cross-reactivity people who react to wheat and gluten, will also react to dairy.

The other thing to rule out is thyroid dysfunction - to rule out any thyroid connection to your IT- and the easiest way to do this is to do Dr Barnes Basal Temperature Test on your own.
This will give you a good indication -barring the presence of any infectious condition at the time of testing- about thyroid or adrenal function.
Please do a search for this and follow the simple instuctions precisely.

You may also want to look into Ovary-Adrenal-Thyroid Axis Imbalance
( low thyroid function secondary) as a possible root of your problems.
Many of your symptoms may be very well explained by such an imbalance which can impact any organ hormonally within those systems, something that unfortunately so far has been outside the scope of conventional medicine.

Let me know if you need any more details, but please note that my suggestions are not intended as a substitute for medical advice.

Thank you for your response! I will definitely check into the things you have listed. One thing I want to mention is that my "fibro" symptoms seem to get much better when I am menstruating. It strange to me that I notice a relief in the tightness and the pain of my muscles, especially in my upper back area. However, a week to two weeks fright before menstruation the pain is at its worst, with stiffness/soreness being very high. The pain doesn't every go away per se, but it does improve a lot! I can't figure out this connection.

Also to note, I have had some allergy testing done back in 2011 via blood work and I tested negative to gluten sensitivity and dairy. If that is the case then these foods should not be causing me any problems, correct?

You're welcome!
The tests for gluten sensitivity are definitely not sensitive enough to rule out gluten issues all together.
For educational purposes look into the Cyrex Labs website to get an idea of what is involved.
For example look into Gliadin test (urine), by Cyrex labs. They test 12 forms-not just the alpha ordered by most doctors- of gliadins regarding gluten intolerance.
Now they can also test which part of the body is affected.

Conventional medicine is still at the stone age in many areas of R&D when
drugs are not involved ( or simply because maintenance drugs ARE involved, further research to discover cures is just not funded sufficiently)

A friend of mine in Wisconsin had some allergy testing done a few months ago and the majority of the foods she was supposed to be allergic to, she was fine each and every time she would consume them!
And yet she would react to other items negatively that were not on the "forbidden" list. Go figure! Lol!

Premenstrual symptoms could be more substantial than the menstrual symptoms, when the body truly experiences menstruation as a relief in a positive sense .
This may have to do with the "blood letting" effect, or other factor(s),
but definitely there's a hormonal play there.

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